Researchers from Ireland, China, France, Germany and the United States, including Northern Arizona University's Paul Keim and David Wagner, have turned back the clock to examine the past 10,000 years of global plague disease events. Their findings regarding the plague pathogen, Yersinia pestis, will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal, Nature Genetics.

Tracing its evolution, the plague spread over various historical trade routes as early as the 15th century. Chinese admiral and explorer Zheng He's travels may have taken the plague to central Africa. The Silk Road, which led from China to Western Asia and on to Europe as described by Marco Polo, also may have served as an avenue for disease. The latest plague pandemic of the late 1800s still persists today in wild rodents throughout the western United States.

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